Tuesday poem: Skiing for the first time
November 12, 2019
Skiing for the first time is like…
…strapping a fake pelican’s bill to your face
and being told go fish, go now, go quick!
And the sardines are fifty metres below
and the waves are all like Teahupo’o,
but icy as the Atlantic, not tropical Tahitian,
so you can’t feel your new prow because it’s frozen
to your nose. It’s growing, speedy as Pinocchio’s,
this aberrant beak, and you wish that you had lied
and pleaded stomach bugs or swine flu or Death,
who now looms, laughing in pink fluorescent pants
urging you to push off, go now, go quick!
And you gaze down, down to the white fields
soon to be strewn with your broken, severed legs,
punctuating cold pages with exclamatory pain.
Whoosh!!
PS Cottier
‘Skiing for the first time is like…’ awarded second prize in the Cooma Feast of Poetry 2009 (Adult open section). Published in Cooma Feast of Poetry chapbook, 2009.
Just a follow up from the mountain themed entry last week. But I have never skied; too much of a wimp, and too little snow. The nearest I’ve been is on a sled; a bit like the guy above.
UPDATE: I previously posted a link to a review I wrote of a history of Australian women’s football, but a reader has informed me that it’s behind a paywall, so I have removed it. So skiing is the only sport here!
Tuesday poem and reviews
October 28, 2019
A bit of a link-fest this week! Firstly, here’s a link to on-line journal of women’s poetry Not Very Quiet, for a poem called The dusky grasswren, which is what it says on the box. This is not a dusky grass wren.
The links to two recent reviews I have written recently; of Jack Charles’s book Jack Charles: Born Again Blakfella, and of Mike Chunn’s A Sharp Left Turn: Notes on a life in music, from Split Enz to Play It Strange. Both reviews were published in The Canberra Times.
I used to review books a fair bit, and it’s great to be doing this again. Quite a different discipline from poetry; entering into a book with an imaginary potential reader as your companion.
Tuesday poem: Three first world concerns
September 27, 2019
Three first world concerns
The scholastic affliction —
virus transmits an urge
to write a PhD
Paleo or vegan diet?
Debate attracts more comments
than Palestine
American spelling triumphs —
well color me cheeks,
what’s wrong with ‘u’?
PS Cottier
This one is inspired by some of the whingey conversations overheard at my local café. Hats off to the woman who was complaining about how expensive marble is in kitchen renovations, as if it was a human rights issue. The second stanza (or pseudo-haiku) is based on newspaper debates on-line.
I do feel an itch of discomfort about American spelling, so the last part is a go at myself. And the sign has no relation to the poem, I think.
Tuesday poem: Tribute
September 9, 2019
A strange tendency
we adore that which monsters
Stephen Edwin King
I am very much enjoying the current Stephen King glut of films and TV series. But for me, the prospect of a new book by King beats all of that. Can’t wait to read The Institute, which I think comes out in November. Long may King continue to scare the crap out of us, all the world around.
UPDATE: I don’t know where I got that November idea from, as the book’s out now!
Tuesday poem: Haiku
September 4, 2019
Behind the parlour
nail clippings rejoice
castanets
I was just thinking about the constant trail of stuff we leave behind; skin,hair, nails. The idea of all these sheddings coming together is disturbing. Maybe have a go at writing your own weird little haiku? The hair caught in hairbrushes comes to mind.
